Flat roofing in Stourpaine

Lean tos, garages and the small flats on old cottages. Flat roofs in Stourpaine are seldom the main roof. They are a kitchen or bathroom built onto the back, a garage or cart store, a porch, a bin store, and sometimes a little lead flat capping a bay or a stair window.

The coverings we meet in Stourpaine are torch on felt, built up felt in three layers finished with a mineral cap, GRP fibreglass and the occasional old lead. Before pricing we strip a section, because the deck settles the argument. Plywood or OSB that has stayed dry can be re-covered straight away. Chipboard decking that has drawn water sags between the joists and comes off, with new boards fixed down first. After that it is EPDM rubber in a single sheet, fibreglass, a new torch on system, or single ply on anything long and open.

Standing water, falls and outlets. Ponding is not a cosmetic complaint. Water that sits works into every lap and seam and the first sharp frost opens them up. It is almost always a fall that was never laid, firrings cut too shallow, tapered insulation crushed, or a rainwater outlet packed with leaf litter and grit. We put the falls back so the roof drains at an outlet rather than in the middle, to the minimum BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs sets, and then check the gutter, hopper and downpipe below can actually carry it.

The details that let water in. It is the edge trim, the drip, the apron where the roof meets a wall, the kerb round an opening and the laps. On felt you get a blister, a bubble or a split. On single ply it is a lifted or failed seam. On fibreglass it is a crack at a sharp internal angle where the deck flexes. Soft material is taken out first. The upstand is then built to a proper height and tucked behind the covering, and the laps are welded or bonded so nothing depends on sealant.

Openings, abutments and the build up underneath. A rooflight, a lantern, a Velux, an access hatch or a soil and vent pipe wants a kerb and a collar. Where a flat roof meets brick, flint or stone we chase in a cover flashing in lead, cut so it moves with the weather instead of tearing. On a parapet we look at the coping and whether a cavity tray sits behind it. Older roofs in Stourpaine are cold roofs, insulation between the joists with a dead void above, which is where condensation collects and interstitial damp rots the deck out of sight. Warm roof construction fixes it. Insulation board goes above the deck, the vapour control layer goes below the board, and the dew point lands in the PIR rather than on your joists.

The square metres are the easy part. What decides the job is under the covering and around its edges. The deck. Sound ply or boards can take a new membrane straight on. Chipboard that has been wet for years, or ply that gives underfoot, comes off and is replaced, and that is the biggest swing in any flat roof price. Nobody can tell from a photograph, so Thomas lifts a corner before writing a figure.

The fall. Water has to run somewhere. Plenty of old flat roofs were laid dead level, or towards an outlet that has since been built over, and they pond after every shower. Firrings put the fall back, and they add time before the membrane goes down.

Where it meets the house. On an older building in Stourpaine a flat roof often butts against flint or soft brick, where a good upstand and a lead or trim detail matter more than the middle of the roof. Each upstand, outlet and edge trim is priced on its own. The work at height rules make the tower or scaffold a separate line, and it stands for as long as the deck is open.

Before you choose, ask the other firm which system it is laying and in how many layers, whether the deck is being renewed or covered over, and whether the skip and the scaffold are in its figure.

Stourpaine has a conservation area over its older core, and the thing to understand is what it does and does not control. It does not control how a flat roof is built. You can have a warm roof, new firrings, PIR above the deck and a modern membrane without anybody objecting, because none of that is visible. What it controls is appearance where the roof can be seen.

In practice it comes down to whether your roof is actually visible from a road, a lane or the footpath or hidden at the back behind the ridge, and whether you are changing what it looks like or putting back what was there. Like for like is maintenance. A run of new rooflights, a lantern, a raised parapet or a bright silver trim where there used to be a dark edge is a change of appearance and it is worth a short call to Dorset Council first. If the house itself is listed, listed building consent is a separate matter again, and it can apply even to repair work.

Stourpaine sits nineteen miles from our Boscombe base, in the Hill Forts & Upper Tarrants ward of Dorset Council. We take on flat roofs over garages, lean tos and extensions there, in Durweston and Pimperne, and in the other DT11 villages.

You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen runs it, and it is Thomas who comes to look at the roof and prices it. On Checkatrade, one verified customer scored the work 10 out of 10. Neither the visit nor the itemised quote in writing costs you anything. Before you book a visit in Stourpaine, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Stourpaine need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.